old plane value

I have a chance to buy a Baileys #5 plane with corrugated sole in brand-new condition but am not sure what its worth. Any ideas? I have an old one and was going to recondition it but that would involve work/time.

I would guess in the $50 range. I think they are fairly common. A lot of people have it on there list of the planes you should start with. But the #5 isn't one of my goto planes, I have mine setup as a scrub plane (i.e. wide mouth and very curved blade) for roughing work. The condition and age will effect the price. You could use something like hyper kittens plane dating flowchart (http://hyperkitten.com/tools/stanley_bench_plane/) to date the plane. I think Patrick Leach's Superior Works page has dating info as well. I personally prefer the look and feel of the the pre-WW2 planes myself, but the newer ones will cut wood fine.

If your plane that needs reconditioning isn't a complete pile of rust, the cleanup isn't usually too bad. There are tons of internet resources on cleaning them up. I usually go with lapping the sole on sandpaper on my table saw and a WD40 bath for all the metal parts. If it is super rusty a few hours in Evaporust does an amazing job. A lot of people use a wire wheel to clean up the metal parts which I haven't tried yet.

If you could get a No. 5C for $50 it would be a bargain. You can get a good read on current pricing on eBay. On the Home page click on "Advanced" in the upper right, which brings you the the Advanced Search page. After putting in the product name, select "Collectibles" and then, just below, "Completed Listings". Products with the price in green sold, with prices in black did not sell.

Prices on Stanley depend on the Type and the condition with an extra bump for the dubious privilege of a corrugated sole.